SERDANG, Feb 16 - Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)’s ‘Putra
Space’ team succeeded in reaching to the second round of ‘Airbus Fly Your Ideas
2017’ when it was listed among Top 50 out of 356 teams from 89 countries
that entered the competition.

For this competition, ‘Putra Space’ has come out with an
idea to improve efficiency and effectiveness of airlines operations for the
comfort and safety of airline passengers by designing an automated cabin
baggage delivery system for flight carry-on baggage.

Through this innovative idea, passengers only need to place
their luggage in a special station installed near the entrance of the aircraft.
This system will then automatically keep the luggage in a special storage space
in the modified cargo area.

Passengers will be given a special tag featuring a bar code
during check-in at the counter to facilitate collection of their baggage before
disembarking.

According to a study, the cargo space of a passenger airline
never exceeds 40% of its capacity since the past few years. Thus, the empty
cargo space can be utilized to implement the proposed automatic storage of
cabin baggage.

Putra Space comprises Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering
students, Mohd Fazri Sedan and Muhammad Fais Haikal Mohd Isa; a graduate of the
Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering, Tan Yi Han who is currently pursuing his
Master’s Degree at the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan; and Master of
Science (Aerospace Engineering) student Hashafiqa Nur Zainal. The team is
supervised by a senior lecturer of the Faculty of Engineering, Dr. Fairuz
Izzuddin Romli.

Airbus' Fly Your Ideas is a biennial global competition,
organized by Airbus in partnership with UNESCO, to challenge students to
innovate for the future of sustainable aviation.

A total of 5,499 students from 89 countries that made up the
356 teams, registered - to participate in the fifth edition of Airbus'
Fly Your Ideas. The first round started in September 2016, with only 50 teams
selected for the second round which began last January. However, only five
teams will be selected for the final round in May.

Mohd Fazri, who is also Putra Space team leader, said their
concept and idea were to make it easier and faster for passengers to embark
without having to carry their baggage, standing on the aisle and placing their
baggage in the luggage compartments hovering the passenger seats, thus
obstructing other passengers.

He said the system will address difficulties faced by short
passengers as they do not have to store their luggage in the compartments.

In the case of air turbulence, the baggage will not fall on
the passengers as no large baggage is placed in the compartments above the
passengers’ seats.

“We want passengers to feel comfortable and safe, and able
to walk to their seat faster,” he said in an interview.

Dr. Fairuz, meanwhile, said what Putra Space actually did
was continuing innovating a ‘capstone project’ which was proposed through a
coursework under the subject of Aerospace Vehicle Designs which is taught by
him.

He regarded the idea as exciting and promising and proposed
that it be studied in details first before it was submitted for entry in the
competition.

"Such a competition proves to be very rewarding to students as it will
expose them to higher order thinking skills and boost their creativity, besides
strengthening their soft skills, especially in terms of teamwork and
communication. Furthermore, there are not that many aerospace-related
competitions organized globally,” he said.

This is not the first time that teams from UPM have
succeeded in entering the second round of Airbus' Fly Your Ideas. In 2013, a
team under the supervision of Dr. Fairuz managed to advance to the final Top 5
which was held in Paris, France.

Nevertheless, UPM’s participation this time around is quite
‘unique’ due to challenges faced by ‘Putra Space’ team who finds it rather
difficult to hold discussions due to the absence of Tan Yi Han who is pursuing
his study in Taiwan.

Therefore, they resorted to using the social media to
interact and discuss with her online.

"Yes, I am away from other group members and it is difficult to interact.
So, we are using the social media to communicate. Despite all these, I will do
my level best for the team,” she told a video conference during the interview.

The ‘Putra Space’ team also expressed their gratitude to the Department of
Aerospace Engineering, UPM, and the Aerospace Society of Malaysia (AEROS
Malaysia) for their support and assistance in making their entry into the
competition, successful. – UPM